More Bang For The Tradeshow Buck For B2B Startups

Tradeshows are expensive and as a startup our participation is completely un-affordable. The ROI for B2B events is uncertain. Does this sound familiar? As a B2B focused social media marketing agency we at Midas Touch get pulled into this argument often but somewhat contrary to expectations our response is not always an outright rejection. We believe that there may well be a case for B2B focused startups to seriously consider tradeshows as a part of their marketing mix.

Why should my startup go at-all?

The benefits of participating in Tradeshows are well known. For starters – where else can you access such a large, reasonably homogenous group of target customers together? The opportunity to engage with them and start the long process of relationship building, what old timers called networking, is apparent. Such a focused gathering also offers a great opportunity to craft a very specific message and broadcast it in a “gatekeeper” free environment. There are also undeniable benefits to visibly being a part of a community your target customers obviously care about. In most cases merely attending the event can also deliver acceptable returns provided some tactical steps are taken.

The importance of specific content

First understand that a lot of preparation is involved – generally the larger the event the longer the time you will have to spend in the groundwork. The first step starts well in advance of the actual event – define the message likely to appeal to the audience at the event and start creating high quality content to reflect that. This includes informative blogs on your website, thought-leadership oriented articles in online publications that target the same audience and more salesy “hard-copy” collateral.

The next step is to start a structured effort to get that content in front of the people it is intended for. The aim should be to associate your startup with the chosen subject in the minds of the target audience and the best way to do this is for them to “find” your content as they go online to answer their questions or to seek information. To do this we can turn to social media as well as some more “direct” action.

Getting the content “found” – social media

Twitter and LinkedIn are the weapons of choice in the B2B Social Media space. Most trade events these days invest in building a social trail – on Twitter this may take the form of a dedicated Twitter handle and a hashtag associated with the event and on LinkedIn long running events may have Groups of past and prospective participants. This presents startups an opportunity to become a part of a conversation larger than their own circles by associating themselves with these online properties.

One approach would be to start with teaser mentions on Twitter about the event that use the appropriate hashtags and in the period leading up to the event increase the mentions. Live tweeting impressions and opinions of proceedings during the event will grab some eyeballs and continuing the tweets in the immediate aftermath of the event will help your startup stay in the eyeline and linked to the event.      

On LinkedIn the approach has to be different – updating your company page to reflect your participation is important to inform those who already follow your startup. Going into the LinkedIn group associated with the event and in other groups of people likely to be similarly interested is also worthwhile but has to be approached sensitively. These forums are not the place to shamelessly promote oneself or one’s participation – a more subtle approach is called for. For eg. a mention of something newsworthy from previous conferences or your own expectations from the upcoming one is a good way to invite opinions from other people who would also be in attendance.     

Direct action- The role of email campaigns

Email campaigns should be planned as the tradeshow approach. Here step 1 is to identify the people attending the event that you would like to connect with. The list of the speakers at the conference could be the first port of call. The next stop could be the list of sponsors and exhibitors – chances are the top people in those companies will be in attendance. A carefully crafted email to these people referring to the tradeshow in the subject line stands a better chance of being read than other “cold” emails. The email should set out crisply what you hope to achieve from attending the event and seek an opportunity for a conversation while there. Following up, both with people who have confirmed meetings and those who have not, is critically important but a fine line has to be toed here so you don’t cross over into spammer territory. The timing of the emails is important – too early won’t work and too close to the show won’t do.

Following this script in prep should both improve your chances of meeting people that matter at the event and also in getting the word out to the rest of the people attending about your startup’s relevance in the space. After that it’s off to the races – make sure you have loads of business cards to hand out!       

Note: This article first appeared in more-or-less this shape in Yourstory.in under my byline.

On Why You Don’t Visit Facebook to Look For A Job Or LinkedIn For Hotel Reviews?

Staying Socially Afloat

About 3 and a bit years ago it seemed you couldn’t go a moment on facebook without someone sending you a BranchOut shout-out. The app was touted to help facebook make the pivot from being a place one visited to surreptitiously check back on one’s ex to the brand new jobs supermart. Perhaps unsurprisingly nothing of the sort happened and today BranchOut has transformed into a kind of workplace messaging app. This is a salutary tale - a reminder that each social network has its specific place and marketers have to choose wisely. Let’s take a brief look at some of the most popular networks and how your brand can best leverage them.

LinkedIn: My agency, Midas Touch, does a fair amount of work with B2B focused clients so it’s no surprise we love LinkedIn. The people here have professional motivations – network with their peers, build up a profile that attracts potential employers, seek information for their professional needs and so on. This is THE place to go if you want to paint a professional picture of yourself (or your brand). Research shows a significant percentage of engagements with companies on LinkedIn eventually convert into purchases with the operative word being eventually. Use the company page as a living breathing extension of your website, the Showcase pages as mini special purpose websites and the LinkedIn groups as a forum of your peers to learn from, participate in and promote quality content to get the most out of undoubtedly the most effective B2B Social Media Channel out there.

Twitter: Short, sharp, swift and ground zero for the momentary sensation. This social network is best suited for making announcements and updates including time-limited offers. If your brand counts on buzz then riding on the “breaking news” of the moment on Twitter – a witty aside or a meme-worthy image offers it the best chance of going viral courtesy the oh-so-easy RT. If you want to participate in an ongoing conversation or show your interest in or understanding of a particular market space Twitter offers that opportunity in spades through the intelligent use of hashtags and the curated presentation of relevant informative articles. Another unique opening that Twitter provides is the chance to directly get in the eye-line of influencers, opinion makers and possible large buyers – an organized, subtle campaign of following them, sharing what they share and sustained engagement could get you and your brand on their radar and eventually help convert them into trusted brand advocates.

facebook: Sometimes I wonder how did we keep track of the wonderful vacations our friends were taking in the dark days before facebook? Checking into facebook is now a many-times-a-day activity for hundreds of millions of users, also known as potential buyers, worldwide. The consensus of opinion is that these people look upon facebook as a personal space and are perfectly willing to seek information that would help them reach buying decisions across a variety of product and service categories that impinge on their personal lives. Brand pages and Fan pages are as, if not more, valid surrogates for the brand as the website or offline advertising. The marketer’s responsibility is then to keep the page active and always reflective of the values of the brand through everything it says. The potential is high for showcasing visual elements in the form of photos, albums, videos and graphics. Content that elicits engagement is king here – the currency of record is “Likes”. Fans happily “Like”, “Share”, “Comment” and “Tag” their way into an abiding relationship with the brand. The brand page is a close approximation of a customer community with all of the attendant advantages and disadvantages. The warm and fuzzy feelings of certain fans of the brand are just as likely to get airtime publically on the brand page as the rant of the disillusioned former fan. The marketer’s domain overflows into the customer service space here quite seamlessly and the brand has to be ready for that. facebook is constantly evolving – opportunities for brands abound as long as marketers stay in sync with the network.

There are several other social networks out there vying for the attention of your brand – Pinterest for creating special interest based communities, YouTube as a means of sharing video information and SlideShare (a part of LinkedIn) as a means of presentation format content dissemination all hold their own special promise – the challenge for brand marketers is to identify the specific purpose they aim to achieve and to then pick the right social media network best suited for that. After-all you wouldn’t go to facebook to look for a job or to LinkedIn to find a restaurant now would you? 

An Event To Remember - Pune Digital Marketers

On the 6th of Sept., 2014 my partner in crime at Midas Touch, Radha Giri, and I had the honour of presenting our thoughts to The Pune Digital Marketers. This group is an extremely active and enthusiastic group of professionals from the, no prizes for guessing, Digital Marketing space. We decided the session would be the perfect opportunity for us to present our oft-talked about but seldom exposed to the outside world idea - The Integrated Approach to B2B Lead Generation. 

In conversations with our clients in the BB space over the last year or so we have been trying to put in place a mechanism that allows each of the distinct functions within the Marketing, Inside Sales and Sales organizations pull in the same direction with the objective of increasing the effectiveness of all of them. There was also room for several popular social media techniques in the mix - social listening, social selling, content marketing, influencer marketing and the like. 

The session was wonderfully organized and well attended - standing room only as the picture shows. Radha & I were struck by the quality of the audience and the sharp questions. The entire interaction lasted close to 3 hours and while we cannot capture everything that was covered in that time the PPT we used may serve as a pointer. Some more info. can be found on Twitter by searching for #PuneB2BSocial - the official hashtag for the event. 

We look forward to more such events in the future - this was buzzing !    

http://www.slideshare.net/SanjeevNambudiri/an-integrated-approach-to-b2b-lead-generation-and-social-media

Sales In The Time Of B2B Social Media

Every sales person I meet has that nagging feeling that the rules of the game have changed. There is also the acknowledgement that Social Media may have something to do with that change. That being said the hard-boiled sales personality type set in the ways that have proven successful so far needs convincing before a new course is charted. In this piece I wrote for Social Samosa, India' leading social media news and information source, I tell the story of a legen-(wait for it)-dary sales closure that inspired many from the days before social media. Knowing what I know now I try to then find places where that story would be different today specifically due to the impact of social media.

The title of this post was originally "Sales In The Time Of B2B Social Media" in a kind of ham-handed nod to Gabriel Garcia Marquez but for many excellent reasons this was changed - better that than "One Hundred Years Of Solitude" one has to say.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/07/sales-b2b-social-media/

B2B Sales & The Impact Of Social Media

We’re Gonna Need A Bigger “Awards” Page!

“Jaws” fans may recognize the reference so let me hasten to add that we have not just got a glimpse of a giant shark – rather the realization is starting to sink in that the “Awards” page on the Midas Touch website may be tested more often than we had initially thought possible.

Regulars here will know that Midas Touch (www.i-midastouch.com) is the agency I co-founded with Radha Giri, a friend. Those very same regulars will also perhaps know that we won the Global Youth Marketing Forum’s

"B2B Social Media Agency Of The Year 2014"

“B2B Social Media Agency Of The Year” award earlier this year to go with the “Social Media Agency Of The Year” award from the GYMF last year. The latest accolade for Midas Touch is to be recognized among the “Top 10 Digital Marketing Companies” in India by Silicon India magazine in

A Top 10 Finish

their latest edition. The agency profile they have included in the magazine is here. There is a certificate too that should be making an appearance on the above-mentioned “Awards” page soon. Admittedly the list is an assorted “grab-bag” of sorts includes companies from across the country covering a range of focus areas – everything from web-site and mobile app development to technology that enables digital marketing and advertising. That being said – we are extremely proud of the recognition we have received.

When we are not busy attracting attention for our work we have been hard at work adding clients and delivering winning strategies for them. Our client list now covers Software product and software services companies across a variety of technology areas, a mobile gaming platform company, an interactive technology company that addresses event and marketing solutions, an Industrial Packaging solutions company and an Angel Fund among others. Perhaps given the background of the founders it is natural for Midas Touch to have a slight bias towards the technology space and perhaps the B2B area but specifically in the B2C space we have also had the good fortune to work with a Real Estate developer, a Financial Training organization and a large Community for performers, creative people and artists.      

The several business-outcome focused strategies that we help our many clients deploy are designed to show impact. Perhaps this is what helps us stand apart – the recognition probably comes from this differentiation. As our clients add up the awards will too – we’re gonna need a bigger awards page !

B2B Social Media - Same Channel Different Story

In the past I had pointed to an article I had written in Social Samosa explaining how B2B Social Media is different from B2C. The focus then was on what are the different objectives and hence strategies that would apply. Knowing how social media would be different for B2B though is only half the story - how can you best leverage it's many forms and channels for the greatest benefit is the next important step.

In another article I wrote for Social Samosa I had tried to take a closer look at some specific social media channels - FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The article tries to set out some specific objectives that could be best served by each channel and also some thoughts on what sort of activities would shine best. I hope it helps you make a choice from among these channels when you yourself have to make your pick.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/04/b2b-social-media-facebook-twitter-linkedin/

The Choice Is Yours!

In The LimeLight - An Agency Feature On Midas Touch Consultants

Staying afloat in the social sea

Regulars here would know that I am the co-founder of Midas Touch Consultants, a digital and social media marketing agency. The agency focuses on working with small to mid sized companies interested in leveraging the power of digital and social media for true business outcomes. My partner, Radha Giri, and I are both from a business rather than branding background and this tends to colour how Midas Touch approaches social media strategies - the focus almost always ends up being tilted in favour of business outcomes over just branding.

We have been getting attention from the right quarters over the last year or so. This link leads to a feature that Social Samosa carried on the agency - its interesting how they have set up the article. Apart from just introducing the agency and its key personnel (there's a snappy picture of me too - suit up!) it also tries to get at the soul of the organization - makes for interesting reading. Do read it to get a better understanding of who we are and what we believe in.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/04/social-media-agency-midas-touch/